Taco Bell's Cheesy Super Bowl Ads Highlight the Power of Local Marketing

Written by: BrandMuscle Marketing

Advertising and branding experts abound in early February as professionals and amateurs alike dissect the creative marketing approaches and million-dollar campaigns behind Super Bowl commercials. Chasing a similar glory as the players on the field, Super Bowl advertisers go all out -- to the tune of $5 million in media spending for a 30-second spot this year -- as they try to win over the estimated 115 million+ Super Bowl viewers.

This year, national fast food brand Taco Bell added a local spin to its Super Bowl campaign by co-opting infamous local marketing celebrities to tout their new quesadilla-chalupa hybrid. Selecting these wacky personalities based on local notoriety and internet infamy (as opposed to their specific local markets) makes Taco Bell's strategy as much digitally driven as it is locally driven, but it also showcases how national brands can supplement their branding at the local level.

Taco Bell's brand personality is built on 'outside of the bun' ideas, so including wacky local commercials is a perfect fit. Buying the local media spots in five markets cost Taco Bell less than buying another national spot, but gives brand loyalists a reason to watch essentially the same ad five times. And while one could argue that Taco Bell already received the exposure they paid for as each commercial aired, the success of this unique approach can also be measure by how many digital views each commercial can garner -- a total 60,000+ views in less than 24 hours (and counting).